Touch Screens

A touch screen is a screen that does not require indirect stimulation, such as that of a mouse or a keyboard, for interaction. These screens can sense when someone is touching them, and will react accordingly.

The term usually refers to a screen that can react to anything from a finger to a stylus. The term does not usually refer to a screen that can respond to active objects only....for example, like a light pen.

Touch screens are very popular on all kinds of different electronic devices. Ipods, iPads, mobile phones, computers, touch screen cash registers, and PDAs all make use of touch screens, and that is only the beginning. The ability to manipulate a computer directly by touch, without necessarily needing a keyboard or a mouse to do so, is an idea that has been around for a long time.

In fact, the idea used to be more of a science-fiction fantasy than a real, possible reality. But nowadays, teenagers are carrying mobile phones that are a hundred times more powerful than computers of the past....so it seems that at least the first classic age of the touch screen has officially arrived.

Touch screens, in their very earliest and primitive forms, emerged around the time of the 1940s. Corporate research labs did work on them, but it was 1975 before any real headway was made. At around this time, a device came out that was known as the computer assisted learning terminal.

This terminal was one of the first active touch screens, though it was a far cry from even the simplest touch screen devices that we have access to now. There are even devices like the iPad that are completely touch-screen based! In fact, this device has been met with huge popularity among people from all different walks of life.